Feed-hopper.



G. F. BALL.

FEED HOPPER.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 15, 1910.

' Patented Jan. 9, 1912.

HIIIIIIIIIII COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPN C0,,WASHINQTON, n. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES F. BALL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO BALL & JEWELL, FBROOKLYN, NEW YORK, A FIRM.

FEED-HOPPER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 9, 1912.

To all whom it may concern."

Be it known that I, CHARLES F. BALL, a citizen of the United States, andresident of Richmond Hill, in the borough of Queens and city and Stateof New York, have 1nvented a new and useful Improvement in Feed-Hoppers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a feed hopper and more particularly to a feedhopper employed in feeding rubber waste or other mixed mass of materialwhere the nature of the material being fed and the variation in the sizeand shape of the pieces have atendency to render the feed irregular anduncertain.

A practical embodiment of my invention is represented in theaccompanying drawings in which,

Figure 1 is a view of the hopper in side elevation, partly broken away.Fig. 2 is an end view, the drive pulley being partly broken away. Fig. 3is a top plan view. Fig. 4 is a vertical transverse section, and Fig. 5is a section of the clutch in detail.

The hopper here shown is oblong rectangular in shape in horizontalsection, its 0pposite sides 1 and 2 gradually approaching each other asthey extend downward and finally running parallel to form the oppositesides 3 and 4 of the neck. This form is well adapted to the feeding ofrubber waste for masceration preparatory to recovering the rubber, but Ido not wish to limit myself to this particular use as the structure issuitable for various uses.

From the inner wall of one side of the neck, in the present instance,from the wall 1, a curved lip or guard 5 projects and extends half way,more or less, across the interior of the neck. Mounted on a shaft 6,extending lengthwise of the hopper in the upper portion of the neck, isa mutilated cylinder 7, the diametrically opposite sides of the cylinderbeing cut away forming concave depressions 8 and 9, the portions of thecylinder extending in opposite directions from the shaft constitutingfeed arms for forcing a quantity of the material down the neck as theysuccessively sweep across the bottom of the charged hopper. A roller 10is mounted in bearings 11 and 12 on the inner faces of the ends of thehopper, the bearings being set inclined toward the shaft 6 and elongatedto permit the roller 10 to be bodily crowded away from the feed cylinder7, whenever a piece or mass of material tends to jam between the feedcylinder and the roller. The shaft 6 may be rotated in any suitablemanner, the means here shownconsisting of a spur wheel 13 fixed on aprojecting end of the shaft 6 and engaged by .a p1n1on 14 carried by aclutch sleeve 15 on a shaft 16 mounted in the ends of the hopper, thesaid shaft 16 having secured thereon a cone. stepped drive pulley 17.The sleeve 15 is slid by a clutch operating lever 18, pivoted at 19 to abracket 20 on the end of the hopper, into and out of engagement with theclutch member 21 on the hub of the pulley 17 To prevent the material inthe hopper from becoming j ammed so as to bridge the interior of thehopper above the feed cylinder 7, the shaft 16 is provided within thehopper with an agitating roller 22 having teeth 23 which act upon thematerial to loosen and break up hard masses and cause it to travel intoposition to be acted upon by the wings of the feed cylinder.

In operation, the hopper receives the material supplied thereto in anyconvenient manner and the shaft 6 having been set in operation bysliding the pinion 14 into mesh with the spur wheel 13 and, at the sametime the sleeve 15 into clutching engagement with the clutch member 21on the drive pulley 17, the Wings or arms of the feed cylinder will biteoff from the mass at the bottom of the hopper, substantially uniformquantities of the material and force it down the neck of the hopper pastthe lip or guard 5, the latter serving as an effective stripper andguard against the return of the quan tity fed. The yielding roller 10coacts with the feed cylinder to regulate the quantity fed, but willpermit any hard or larger piece of material than usual to pass throughand thereby prevent a jamming or clogging of the feed.

It is obvious that changes might be resorted to in the form andarrangement of the several parts without departing from the spirit andscope of my invention; hence I do not wish to limit myself strictly tothe structure herein shown and described, but

What I claim is:

A hopper provided with a curved lip or guard projecting inwardly fromthe wall of the hopper, a mutilated cylinder provided With concave sidesrotatably mounted at the In testimony, that I claim the foregoing 10base of the hopper With its cylindrical suras my invention, I havesigned my name in faces in position to travel in close proximpresence oftwo Witnesses, this 11th day of ity to the face of the curved lip orguard, a November, 1910.

roller mounted Within the hopper in 006perative relation to the saidcylinder and free CHARLES BALL to move bodily away from the cylinder un-Witnesses: 1

der pressure and means for rotating the F. GEORGE BARRY,

cylinder. HENRY C. THIEME.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C.

